Zona Espansione Nord, also known as ZEN or San Filippo Neri, is an economically deprived quarter on the northern outskirts of Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

, Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

. It is located in the VII municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 and has a population of around 16,000 people. It was constructed in 1969, under the design by architect Vittorio Gregotti

Vittorio Gregotti

Vittorio Gregotti is an Italian architect, born in Novara.He is head of the Gregotti Associati studio. His studio has designed several important buildings, such as the Barcelona Olympic Stadium, the Belém Cultural Center in Lisbon, the Arcimboldi Opera Theater in Milan and several university...

, and it consists of bleak, multi-storied housing projects, most of which are in a state of dilapidation. As a result of rampant unemployment, poverty, high school drop-out rate and marginalization of the residents, ZEN has become notorious for its crime, juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...

, and social degradation. The architect Massimiliano Fuksas

Massimiliano Fuksas

Massimiliano Fuksas is an Italian architect, born in Rome in 1944 to an Jewish Lithuanian father and Italian Catholic mother. He received his degree in architecture from the La Sapienza University in 1969 in Rome, where he opened his first office. Subsequent offices were opened in Paris and Vienna...

 proposed its demolition, together with other similar structures in Italy, such as the Corviale in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

In 1997, ZEN changed its name to San Filippo Neri, but most Palermitans refer to it by its former name. Italian director Marco Risi used ZEN as the setting for his 1990 film Ragazzi fuori

Ragazzi fuori

Ragazzi fuori is an Italian language dramatic film directed by Marco Risi in the neo-neorealistic style and written by Aurelio Grimaldi. Released in 1990, it is the sequel to the 1989 film Mery per sempre...

, which depicted the social problems and lack of opportunities faced by the unemployed youth of ZEN.